The Taiwan Criminal Investigation Bureau has been doing a bit of investigating and has arrested four engineers working for Intel's OEM partners (names not disclosed) for flogging Engineering Sample (ES) processors on eBay. ES processors are intended strictly for qualification testing purposes for development of new products by OEM's and are only loaned to them under strict non-disclosure agreements, hence putting these on eBay is illegal. The Bureau searched the suspects houses last month and found 178 ES CPU's, worth around $800,000. Note that this value seems to be somewhat high, as it would make each CPU worth around $4,500. We will update this article if new values come to light. Also, this is not a new operation that has been busted, since the suspects had admitted to selling around 500 ES CPU's since 2009. For their efforts, the fab four now face five years in prison.

It should be noted for anyone contemplating the purchase of such dodgy CPU's on eBay or similar places, that they may be overstressed and contain faults, due to the intensive and sometimes destructive testing they go through.

2nd News story i've read completely with out skimming in 2012... hehehe keep up the good work guys!

I just don't see these guys making a whole lot of money out of this? Do they know 4 guys that make motherboards for such chips? I can see them make some money, but i doubt they could sale all of those chips before launch. But if they wait until after launch and sale them.. then maybe

btw people, 178 CPU's at $800,000 makes them around $4500, which seems unlikely, so I've updated the article to reflect this.

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What if this is quoted in Taiwan dollars? Which would make it about $27 000. That makes them about $150 each.

The Taiwan Criminal Investigation Bureau swooped on the four in Taoyuan for their role in selling engineering sample CPUs online for fun and profit. Speaking to the China Post, a Bureau spokesman said the gang of four were all engineers working for Intel's OEM manufacturers in Taiwan although he did not say which ones.

What if this is quoted in Taiwan dollars? Which would make it about $27 000. That makes them about $150 each.

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No, if you click on the China Post link in the TechEYE article I linked to, you'll see that they quote a value of NT$2.5 million. Assuming that's Taiwan dollars, then that does indeed come out to around $800K - check it out at currency converter www.xe.com

No, if you click on the China Post link in the TechEYE article I linked to, you'll see that they quote a value of NT$2.5 million. Assuming that's Taiwan dollars, then that does indeed come out to around $800K

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I see it now. Seems like an awful lot of money for a cpu though.
I am really curious as to what company it could be. There are so many around here. I'll ask around tomorrow and see if I can find out.

Honestly, after having taught English at Benq, FSP Group, Delta and Unimicron(they do pcb boards for many companies like Apple), I can see why these guys would try it.

Most of the engineers here work 12 to 15 hour days and are paid about $1200 to $1800US a month.